


Sweet Hibiscus Tea

by muellachh



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Cat Cafés, Family Dynamics, M/M, Polyamorous Character, Slow Burn, Swearing, mentions of the sleepy boys, no beta we die like men, phil is so tired of tommy's bs, sbi are a family and phil is so tired please help him, the fiancees in the background just vibing you know
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-12 13:42:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29510559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muellachh/pseuds/muellachh
Summary: An Alternative Universe where George works in a cat café and Dream just likes some good coffee, tea and cats
Relationships: Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 170





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> please don't share this fanfic with anyone mentioned in this fic and be respectful. 
> 
> every character in this fic is an adult and has stated that they are okay with fanfics. if, at some point, they say otherwise - i will delete this work.

“Wait, which colour is this?”

“Green? I don’t know”

George sighs tiredly, looking at his co-worker and friend bend in half with a loud laugh. This interrogation was going on for about thirty minutes, while the café was still getting ready to open its doors for the customers, and, to be honest, George was surprised that Nick still hasn’t remembered the colour-blindness of his friend.  
Working with this moron wasn’t as hard as George expected it to be. Sapnap was very gentle with the cats that the café had, and even though he kept making those dumb and annoying jokes, George was very thankful to him for taking the hardest things to himself.

“Dude, how the hell does that work?” Sapnap straightens his back and grabs the markers from the counter, looking at them closely. In his eyes George saw a genuine curiosity and interest, and mentally prepared to answer all the questions that he was about to get.

But as soon as Nick was about to say something, the door of the café opened with a little jingle of the bell that was hanging above it. A tall man entered the building, inspecting the menu with an interested expression on his face. His blonde hair was a bit curly and covered his eyes ever so slightly, and George felt a strong desire to fix it.

“The first customer is yours!” Sapnap giggles, setting the markers down and waving to Bad through the little window that led to the kitchen. “Don’t forget to remind them about the breakfast menu, dude. And give him an introduction to the girls”

George giggles and turns around on his heels, grabbing the menu and a tray. He quickly makes his way towards the table, smiling at the cats, who curiously lifted their heads to look at the Brit. The blonde man was a newcomer, George thinks, watching how hesitant he is to approach the cat sitting so close to him.

“Good morning, what can I get you?” George pulls his usual customer-friendly smile on his face, reaching for a little notepad in his pocket. The customer lifts his head from the menu, squinting at the name tag, and smiles back. George has to fight back every single thought about the cute little dimples on this stranger’s cheeks.

“Hello, George! I would love one cappuccino, an omelette and some cat treats.” The man’s voice is a bit raspy and George shivered a bit, quickly glancing at Sapnap.That asshole smirked and winked. “And also, you know the names of the cats here, right?”

“Yes, do you want me to introduce our kittens to you, or do you want to know a name of a certain one?” George watches as the man turns his head towards the cat that was sitting on a windowsill beside them, and frowns, sighing.

“What’s the name of this one? It was watching me through the window, and i just couldn’t resist those pretty eyes.” The customer giggles and turns his head back to George, eyes lit up with genuine adoration. The Brit rushes to pull the smile back and nods understandingly

“Her name is Patches. She is a rescue and we don’t really know her breed.” Patches’ ears perk up as she hears her name, and the blonde man’s eyes lit up even more. “She is very stubborn and doesn’t really like new customers, so i don’t know if it will be easy for you to befriend her. I can show you our other girls that you might like, if you want.”

“No-no, I’ll just try to talk to this pretty lady.” George giggles at that, and grabs the menu from the table. As soon as he looks back at the customer, he winks with a smirk on his face. “Maybe I will be the exception.”

George nods again and straightens his back, eyes running through the short list of what the new customer wants. He asks the confirmation for the order and then rushes to the kitchen, a weird tingly feeling in his stomach growing more and more.

As soon as he comes behind the counter, Sapnap takes the notepad from his hand and throws it to Bad, who immediately gets to work without saying a word. George sinks at the stool in the corner and sighs, glancing at the blonde man. He watches him stand up and carefully approach Patches, one hand reached out to her. The cat perks up and moves a bit closer, curiously sniffing the new, unknown to her, scent. George tries to fight back a smile when the stranger’s smile appeared on his face once again, as Patches tilts his head to the right. She eyes the man from his feet to his head, thinking whether she should trust him, and then lies down, letting the blonde man pet her.

Both Nick and George gasp in unison, surprised by how easily that stubborn cat gave in, purring as the tall man’s hand lightly touched her back.

“She usually hides when new people come here” Nick’s voice is low, as if he is scared to ruin the moment. He kneels down near George, still not everting his gaze from the table in the corner. “He looks hot and cute. Who is he?”

George chokes on own spit and feels his cheeks start burning. He hears a little giggle from his friend, as looks at him with a frown.  
“What the hell is wrong with you Nicholas.” the Brit covers his face with his cold hands and whines, trying to get his mind back to the working state. “Stop hitting on our customers. You already got yourself two dumbasses and I don’t think I can handle more.”  
“What? You don’t think me, Karl and Quackity are cute together? Come on, Georgie, you are just jealous.” Sapnap laughs and George’s eyes fall on two rings on his arm.  
Nick met Karl back in March, when they just opened this place. They quickly became friends and started dating a few months afterwards. Then, in July, a man named Alex started showing up to the café more and more. Just after a month he left Nick a little note with his number and Instagram handle. Karl and Sapnap were happy to welcome Quackity in their little family, and, after five months of dating, Sapnap proposed to them.  
George was happy for them, of course, but trying to work when the three of them were constantly flirting right infront of him was very hard.

“Yeah, sure.” he rolls his eyes and stands up, picking up the tray with the order from the window to the kitchen. Bad smiles and goes back to his phone, completely ignoring the conversation of his co-workers. George shoots one last glare at his friend and goes to the main area, trying his best not to spill the hot coffee everywhere.

He sets the order on the table, trying to stay professional, but a weird tingly feeling comes back to his stomach when he sees hos happy Patches looks. The blonde man scratches the cat for the last time and turns around, sitting down and taking the coffee from the tray.

“See, she is very sweet. I think she likes me.” He giggles and George feels his cheeks burn again. This man had millions of little freckles on his nose and cheeks, pretty green eyes a little scar on his eyebrow. Something about him was weirdly attractive, even though at first he looked like a regular white American man. “Thank you, George.” The blonde reaches his head towards the cup, wanting to take his first sip, but then suddenly stops. “Oh, my name is Clay, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you, Clay. I’m very happy that Patches is so calm with you.” George smiles, trying not to say how pretty he thinks this man’s name is out loud. He almost feels Nick’s eyes burning a whole through his head, and that makes the situation even harder. “I hope you like your meal. To pay for it, please come to the counter and my colleague will take care of that.”  
Clay nods in response and takes a sip of his coffee. George takes that as an end of the conversation and turns around, considering his job done. He quickly makes his way back to Nick, who was visibly checking Clay out, and rolls his eyes at his friend’s behaviour.

* * *

George spends the next half an hour taking orders from other customers, that came in a few minutes after he spoke to Clay. Sapnap doesn’t really bring the topic of Clay up, too busy with work, and, for the first time in a while, George is happy that they have a lot of customers.  
He swerves in between the tables, introduces their cats to everyone, and tries his best not to somehow hit one of the cats while serving the customers. He finally gets to sit down when Clay was packing his things and putting his coat on. George watches Sapnap closely as Clay comes to the counter and gives the receipt to the Texan.

“That will be fifteen dollars and one kiss.” Sapnap giggles and looks back at George, winking at him. It takes Clay a second to process a joke, but when it finally hits him, George can’t stay mad at Nick for long. Clay’s laugh is a loud wheeze and for a second George gets scared, thinking that this man is dying right here infront of them. “Woah, and Georgie says that I’m not funny”  
“Well, Georgie is wrong then” Clay wipes his forehead with a back of his hand and shoots a quick glance at George. His eyes were sparkling with playfulness and, possibly, tears, cause George just can’t imagine how that laugh doesn’t hurt your throat. Clay takes out his wallet and takes out four dollar bills, putting them on the counter. Sapnap’s eyes widen and he hesitantly takes the money in his hands. “That’s fifteen dollars for the meal and twenty as a tip.”

Nick mutters a quick thank you and puts the money in the cashier machine, still shocked by such a big tip. Clay smiles at the two of them and turns around.  
“I’ll surely come back to see Patches, so see you later!” he waves his hand and leaves the building, quickly disappearing in the crowded streets of Florida. George sighs and sinks even further in his chair, covering his face with hands.

“Dude, he is nuts.” Nick sits beside him and George can feel his friend’s warmth on his shoulder. All the Brit does is nod, not able to form a full sentence.

Falling for a customer? The little voice inside of George’s head laughs at him, reminding how fucked up that is. He is not Sapnap, he actually tries to be professional, and with Clay promising to come back again that might be a bit problematic.

“Hey Nick?”  
“Yeah?”  
“I might’ve fucked up a bit.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is a mess im so sorry

It’s been two weeks since Clay first came to the café and, true to his word, he did come there the next day. And every day after that. He quickly became one of the regular customers, and at this point no one was surprised by his big tips. Patches always jumped at the table where Clay was sitting all the time right before he came in, patiently waiting for her favourite customer. 

George was sitting behind the counter, blankly staring into space when he heard the door open. He slowly stood up and stretched, grabbing a tray and his notebook from the shelf. When he looks up the first person he sees is a familiar blonde man in a green (according to Sapnap) hoodie, and then he realizes that this time Clay didn’t come alone. A family of four was walking behind him, loudly laughing at something. The taller guy with pink hair was sceptically arching his eyebrows at the cats, who were curiously staring at the customers, and George saw Clay whisper something to that man, making him laugh. 

A weird feeling of jealousy struck George a bit too hard, making him wince. The Brit looks over to Sapnap for guidance, but get an uninterested shrug in response, making everything even worse. George sighs and walks into the main café area, trying his best to hold the smile on his face. 

As soon as George gets close to the table, Clay looks up and smiles at him, a familiar sparking happiness in his eyes. 

“Hey George!” Clay straightens his back, trying not to disturb Patches, who was purring in his lap. The whole family that came with him suddenly acknowledges George’s presence and looks up. “I came with friends today, I swear they are nice.”

“So you are that George guy that Dream keeps talking about?” The younger looking boy stands up slightly, squinting and eyeing George from feet to the top of his head. George notices a British accent and he can already tell that this guy will be very hard to deal with. “You look like you are dumb”  
“Tommy!” the other man, who was sitting right next to Tommy tugs his shirt, sitting the boy down. He rolls his eyes and sighs heavily, embarrassed. “Excuse my son, please. He gets like that all the time.”

“That’s fine, don’t worry. I am used to dealing with rude kids from time to time.” George ignores Tommy screaming something about how he is the biggest man in the world and mentally prepares for the terrible headache afterwards. Clay laughs at that, rolling his eyes and winking at George, making his cheeks light up with pink once again. Weird how this man can make the Brit feel like a dumb teenager. “So, what do you guys want today?” 

“I would like a cheesecake, some green tea, Tommy wants some biscuits, a can of coke and pancakes with chocolate for Tubbo” George mentally makes a note that this man is, probably, the father of those two teenage boys, and nods. Quickly writing the order down, he turns to the pink haired guy. “Oh, and black coffee for Techno.”  
“I would like hibiscus tea and a cheesecake, please. Trying something new, you know?” Clay smiles and George tries his best to focus on anything other than this guy’s face. His hair grew out a bit, now curling up in some places, and that somehow made Clay look even better. 

George wants to cry, hit his head against the wall, just do anything he can to get those thoughts out of his head, but instead he smiles and writes down the order and turns around, speed-walking to the counter. 

Sapnap doesn’t even say anything, just grabbing the notebook from George’s hands and passing it to Skeppy, who was taking Bad’s place today. For the first time George wants to hear his co-worker say anything, even just make a dumb joke, because trying to tune out the thoughts gets too hard. 

Dream sits right in the sun. His face is lit up by the warm light of Floridian sun, and his hair looks a bit brown. Tommy turns his head towards George slowly, squinting, and a mischievous smile slowly appears on the teenager’s face. He mouths something very close to “simp” and laughs loudly, catching the attention of everyone at the table. A weird feeling of satisfaction rolls over George’s head when he sees Tommy’s dad scold him for being too loud. 

It was very hard not to think of Clay, to be honest. He was always there, coming to the café right after it just opened, and, for some reason, he quickly took over George’s thoughts. The Brit did find Clay handsome, yes, but he never caught this kind of “dumb childhood crush” type of feeling since the middle school. 

A ring of the bell from the kitchen made George jump a bit and he rushed to get the finished part of the order, quickly placing the plates on the tray with his shaking hands. George swore he saw Nick frown at that. 

He tries to ignore guys at the table laughing when he puts the plates down. Clay’s eyes were burning a hole through his temple, and George felt uncomfortable because of that man for the first time since they first met. 

  
“Hey George?” Tommy spoke up, his voice sounding full of mischievous happiness. The Brit bites his lip and straightens his back, holding the tray under his arm. “Are you simping for Dream?”

“For god’s sake, Tommy” the older man rolls his eyes, hiding his face in his arms. “This is why every single employee in every single place hates you.” 

“Philza Minecraft, I’m more than sure that every single employee loves me so much. Especially women.” The teen cocks his head a bit up, proud expression on his face, and George tries to hold in his laughter. 

“I’m pretty sure women employees hate you, Tommy. You are too young for them.” Tubbo lifts his head from the napkin he was drawing on, and immediately gets a weak punch on the shoulder from his brother. “Ouch! But for real, Tommy, leave George alone.”

“What? Tubbo, you are supposed to back me up! Did you even see how that dude was staring at Dream?” Tommy raises his hands, almost punching Tubbo again, and George feels how his whole face becomes red. He takes a little step back, and notices how Clay wasn’t even interested in that conversation, as if he didn’t care at all. “Dream, why is everyone simping for you, but not for me?” 

“Cause he is old enough to be simped for, Tommy.” Techno speaks for the first time and George jumps slightly, not expecting this monotone voice to come from him. Tubbo giggles a bit, and Tommy punches him again. 

“Tommy, shut up.” Clay finally speaks up, looking up from Patches. “Firstly, this is none of your business. Secondly, stop calling me Dream in public, please, I told you not to do that. Thirdly, if you punch Tubbo once more - I’m gonna drop-kick you through the window.” 

Tommy pouts and crosses his hands on his chest, looking at George with an annoyed look. Tubbo shuffles a bit to the left, towards Techno, trying not to get punched again, and the pink haired guy laughs quietly.   
George turns around and rushes to Nick, hearing bickering behind him. Tommy was clearly annoyed by how no one wanted to back his dumb jokes up, and George shivered, suddenly feeling tired. 

The next finished part of the order was served by Sapnap. It took a few minutes of convincing, but George finally broke Nick’s laziness and stubbornness by promising to buy this nerd some anime posters that he wanted for a long time. The Brit sighs, burying his face in his hands, and leans against the wall, trying not to lose it completely. 

He felt anxiety take over him, an annoying tight feeling in his stomach and tears in his eyes. Luca seems to sense that, jumping on the counter and meowing quietly. George looks up, meeting the cat’s eyes, and smiles weakly. Luca was his favourite cat in here; curious and very friendly, he was very popular among children, even thought he wasn’t the most unique-looking one. George slowly stands up and pats the cat’s head, feeling his panic disappear slowly. Soft fur felt nice against his tired hands, and Luca’s purring calmed the Brit down just enough for his head to get back to the calmer state. 

George feels Clay’s eyes on his back, feels a weird tension rise in the room, but he ignores that, completely separating himself from reality. He smiles, patting Luca’s back, and turns his head ever so slightly to meet Nick’s concerned gaze. Sapnap knew how to tell when George doesn’t feel good mentally and always knew what to do. Often he would just stand back, carefully supporting his friend from afar, since he knows that he is not the type of person to express his feelings, and George is very thankful for that. 

Nick smiles and tilts his head to the side, getting a weak nod in response. That was enough for him, and he sighs, getting back to work immediately. 

It takes George a few minutes to get back into the right mood. He sits there for a little while, doing Nick’s work of checking out the customers at the counter, with Luca on his lap. Although when he sees guys from the table in the corner start getting ready to leave, his heart starts racing again. He won’t be able to get Nick to do this order, but he can’t do it himself. Dream will probably just laugh at him and never come back, right? Why would he want to sit there knowing that this creepy waiter is staring at him?

He watches as Phil grabs Tommy’s t-shirt by the neck and drags him towards the exit, followed by Tubbo and Techno. When they get close to the glass doors, George sees Phil turn around for a second just to whisper “I’m sorry” to him, and leave. The Brit giggles, but then his attention gets back to the blonde man, who was getting dangerously close to the counter.   
  
“Hey, George” George stands up, holding sleepy Luca in his hands, and steps closer to the counter. In a corner of his eye he sees Nick freeze somewhere in between the tables, staring at his friend with a curious face, and it takes so much willpower not to flip that dumbass off. If only he cared about his job as much as he cares about George’s personal life. “I’m uh… I’m very sorry for Tommy’s behaviour. He tends to get very, as people say, chaotic, and even Phil can’t stop him half of the time.”

“It’s fine, I’m used to loud kids.” George shrugs, uninterestedly pressing buttons at the cashier machine. It’s very hard to completely ignore Clay though, since he keeps shifting from left to right, making George’s head spin. “You are paying for everyone, I suppose?”

“Yeah, I owe Phil a bit, so I decided to pay today.” Clay giggles and places a hundred dollar bill on the counter, pushing it towards George. “I believe our order is around fourty-ish dollars, and you can take the rest as a moral compensation, or something.” 

George sighs, taking the money and putting it inside the cashier machine. “I am so concerned as to where you get that much money every day. And most importantly, why do you decide to spend it all in a cat café.” 

Clay laughs and looks at the glass door behind him, where Phil and his kids were laughing about something.   
“Well, let’s say those four are closely tied to how i make money.” he shrugs and bends over the counter, patting Luca’s head. “Tommy might have spoilt everything by the way. I keep telling him not to do that, but he forgets every time.” George frowns at that, looking at Clay with genuine concern. So far all the ideas that kept coming to mind about the four of them getting money are not very innocent, and that doesn’t make George calmer. 

“Well, I should go, I think. Bye George, I’ll see you soon” Clay smiles and turns around, rushing to the exit. George can’t help but smile when Tommy’s screams get cut out by the door closing.

* * *

George sighs tiredly, throwing his backpack down beside the bed. His back was hurting so much, and he was exhausted after a long day of work. Anxiety attacks he was having during the day drained his energy completely, making Nick serve almost every order himself. 

Clay’s words suddenly come back to his head as he sits down at the computer, and he frowns. Was Tommy calling Phil “Philza Minecraft” and saying stuff like “simp” and such considered him “spoiling” their profession? George opens up Google Chrome, trying to ignore a thousand of unread messages on discord from Nick, knowing fully well that it was just his friend wining about being tired, and types Phil’s nickname in the search bar. 

The first thing he sees is a link to the Twitch account, and George clicks on it without thinking twice. Coincidentally, that streamer was live, and the Brit leans forward, looking at the familiar face in the left corner of the screen. Phil was talking to Tommy and someone else in a voice call while playing minecraft, and thousands of people were watching him.   


“Chat, calm down, canonically Dream is fine.” George looks at the chat that Phil was talking to, and gasps, seeing how quickly it flashes by. Every single person in that chat was actually sitting somewhere in the world and watching this. This is nuts. “Right Dream? Please tell them that everything is fine.”

“I can’t spoil the plot, Phil! The next stream won’t be interesting then!” 

Here it is. George freezes, hearing the painfully familiar voice and that dumb laugh again. He shakes when he types “Dream” in the Twitch search bar, and feels his heart sink when he sees that the person who has been keeping George awake is actually live right now. 

Unlike Phil, Clay did not have his facecam in the corner. His stream layout was fairly simple, just having his name in the top corner and little pop-ups of the donations right beneath it. George doesn’t fully register what he is doing when he clicks follow and then subscribe. He doesn’t realize what he is doing up to the point when he hears Clay mute himself in discord.  


“Thank you, uh... GeorgeNotFound for 60 dollars, holy shit! I hope you are enjoying the stream, dude”

  
  



	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> liberosis (n.) the desire to care less about things—to loosen your grip on your life, to stop glancing behind you every few steps, afraid that someone will snatch it from you before you reach the end zone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk if i should continue this tbh lmao

George usually hates taking breaks from work. But when he wakes up an hour later than he has to, he realizes that he has no energy to go anywhere at all. Staying up to watch dozens of vods from Dream’s channel was a big mistake, George thinks, as he tries to get himself off the bed. He texts a quick message to Zak, asking to take his place at the café today, and then rolls his eyes at Nick’s messages, who decided not to come today.

On one hand, that’s very convenient, since they can finally just chill playing video games as they used to do before the café opened. But on the other hand, a strong feeling of guilt creeps up George’s spine when he realizes that his friends will have to work there alone without any guidance. 

He stares into the mirror, looking at big dark circles under his eyes, and sighs. Toothpaste falls down into the sink, the water is too cold and won’t heat up; everything felt like this day definitely wasn’t going to be the best. George keeps staring into the reflection as he brushes his teeth, trying to ignore the mint stinging his tongue. He hears a faint sound of the discord notification from his room as he spits out the toothpaste. Tiredly dragging his legs on the flooring, he falls down in his chair and wiggles the mouse, waking his PC up. 

The first thing he sees is Clay’s offline chat. He freezes for a second, watching as people chat there even without Dream going live. He stares at the words flying by, thinking, and slowly types out “Hello guys :]”, fingers shaking when he presses enter. In response, he gets a lot of friendly hellos but frowns when he sees someone in the chat recognize his nickname. George shrugs and closes the browser, trying to escape this weird feeling of guilt inside. Nick is still spamming his discord dms, trying to get his friend’s attention. 

**Sapnap** : hey loser

wtf why are you ignoring me, Georgie 

i am going to cry 

**GeorgeNotFound** : what the hell do you want

i was brushing my teeth (redacted) 

**Sapnap** : lol bruising

anyway wanna play bedwars or smth

i’m bored

**GeorgeNotFound** : yeah sure

gonna call you in a sec

He stares at the screen for a few seconds before pressing the call button. Sapnap picks up almost immediately, sounding very muffled as if he was eating something. George hums in response, not really sure what his friend just said, and hears a laugh. Red minecraft loading screen hurts his eyes and he has to squint a bit, trying to somehow avoid the stinging feeling. 

  
“Mind telling me why you are missing work today?” Sapnap places his, presumably, water bottle down with a loud bang, making George flinch a bit. The Brit takes a moment to calm down and scold himself for acting like this, before forcing a laugh.   
“I don’t know. I stayed up all night yesterday, so I literally had no energy to do anything actually productive today.” George shrugs and presses the multiplayer game option, trying to find hypixel in a list of countless useless servers they used to fuck around on. “Don’t shame me, you skipped today too.”

“Well for me it’s a usual thing, right? I don’t remember even a single time you willingly skipped a day of work. Or school, for that matter.” Sapnap clicks his mouse a few times, and then George sees a “Sapnap joined the game” message in chat. Immediately he gets an invite to a private party and mindlessly types a command, joining his friend. “Okay, forget it, at least we finally can kick ass in minecraft again. Like good old times, huh?”  


George laughs in response, his in game character crouching next to Nick. His mind traces off when a flash of Clay’s stream comes up in his head. George remembers Dream crouching in that same place near Philza, and that annoying feeling in his stomach comes back. 

He flinches as the countdown appears on screen, shaking his head to try and get back to the competitive mood. If they are playing, they have to win. That’s always how it goes with Nick.

“I’m gonna get some stuff and rush red’s base. You place planks and wool around our bed and go get diamonds.” Nick gets closer to the screen and almost screams the commands into the mic, immediately grabbing all the iron from the spawners. George can’t even say anything before he sees Sapnap speedbridge towards the base next to them. 

The Brit stumbles a bit, trying to figure out what colour they are, but then gives up on that, mindlessly placing the protection around the bed. He laughs when the kill messages appear in the chat, signalling that Sapnap’s plan was working flawlessly. 

“Dude, these dumbasses can’t even play this game. They are literal dog water.” Nick’s voice was full of excitement and pride, and George smiles at that, happy to hear his friend like this again. He grabs some wool from the shop and runs towards the edge, bridging towards the diamond generator. “How are you doin’?”

“So far so good. Got three diamonds, should I buy a trap or store them in a chest?” George gets the said diamonds from the spawner and turns around, completely ignoring the person in the middle of the map.   
“Buy the trap and then come with me to the ye- uh… the base on the right from us.” Sapnap stumbles over his words, trying to explain the colours of the bases simpler for his colour-blind friend. George hums as a way of showing appreciation, and rushes to the shop, getting the cheapest traps. He throws the rest of the diamonds in the ender chest and jumps at the bridge that Sapnap was building.

It takes them just a few minutes to win the game and George laughs loudly, hearing Nick’s cheers on the other side of the call. He leans back in his chair, looking proudly at the screen.  
“Another game, or do you wanna play build battle?” Nick’s chair squeaks loudly as the man shifts closer to the table, and George takes a mental note to get that dumbass a new chair for Christmas.   
“Build battle will be very hard for me, I think. I’m not very good at building, you know.” George shrugs, mindlessly jumping around the lobby. He crouches at the top of the bridge and zooms in on Sapnap’s character, laughing as his friend slowly turns his head towards him. “I don’t mind playing another round of bedw-”   
  
Before he can finish, he hears a little notification from his phone. He shoots a quick glance at the lit up screen and freezes, seeing that it’s from Twitch. A simple “DreamWasTaken is live: Hypixel with the child” throws him out of the happy and competitive mood he finally got in, and he completely forgets about the game that they were about to play.   
  
“George? Are you okay there?” Nick sounds genuinely concerned, and George has no idea how to respond. Every single option he has in mind makes him look like the creepiest man alive and the annoying feeling of guilt comes back, whispering how unprofessional he is. “Dude, seriously, are you okay? Have you fainted again?”

“No-no, I’m fine.” He tries to sound calm, but his hands suddenly become so sweaty and shaky, that controlling his in game character becomes a bit hard. He sighs. “It’s just… So you know how I’ve been all weird about that Clay guy?”

“Oh my god, do you have a crush on him?”   
“What?! No! Shut up and listen!” George pushes his keyboard away, covering his heated up face with his arms. He feels his chest tightening, and takes a deep breath, following his therapist’s guidance. “Okay so, I might be finding him pretty and funny, and he might’ve accidentally given out his profession. And I might’ve stalked him all night and missed work today because of that.”   
  


In response George gets a weird silence and the panic inside him rises up. After a few moments of painful waiting, Nick laughs loudly and his chair squeaks again, George imagines him leaning back, covering his face with his palms, and an irrational desire to punch that dumbass comes back once again.   
  
“Don’t tell me that our beautiful blonde rich boy is a fucking web-cam model or something.” George chokes on his spit and rolls back in his chair, headphones yanking towards the computer. Even now the Brit can hear Nick’s laugh loud and clear, and that makes him even more embarrassed. 

He moves closer, puts the headphones on, and clears his throat. “No, he is not a fucking porn-star, Nicholas. He is a minecraft streamer.” George looks down, fiddling with the sleeves of his yellow (or green?) hoodie.  
“Wait, seriously? Is he live right now? That’s so cool!”   
“He is live. That’s why I got distracted.”   
“Holy shit, can you screen share? We can watch it together!” Sapnap’s voice gets a bit higher and George tries not to giggle at the childish excitement of his friend. The heavy feeling of embarrassment and fear still sitting in his stomach.   
“No, I will send you the link and you watch it yourself.” George copies the link for the stream, trying not to focus that much on the screen, and blindly sends it to Sapnap, hearing his friend click his mouse. Right afterwards Tommy’s loud voice blows up from Nick’s side of the call, and George frowns, toning his friend’s mic down a bit.

“Are you tier three-d to him already? Oh my god I bet you are.” Nick giggles and George swears that he will punch that smug bitch tomorrow. “Okay-okay, shush, I wanna watch.”

George clicks on the browser icon and turns the stream volume up. He watches as Clay’s character jumps on the same lobby where George just was, and rolls his eyes seeing a “sapnap just subscribed” message in the right corner of the screen. Of course he did. Just to make fun of George too, probably. He tries to ignore his friend’s jokes, focusing only on the banter between Tommy and Clay. 

The chat was moving so fast, and George frowns when he sees someone asking for a gifted. Without thinking, he clicks on the “gift a sub” button, and confirms payment, realizing what he did after the top corner showed a “GeorgeNotFound gifted 25 subs” in bold text. A cold feeling of fear takes over him, as Nick shuts up on the other side of the call.   
  
“Did you just…” The Texan mumbles in disbelief, looking at chat exploding with thank you’s and pogs. George shakes his head, not fully registering the situation, and freezes when he hears Clay acknowledge the gifted subs.   
“Holy shit, welcome back GeorgeNotFound! Thank you so much for the gifted, man.” Dream’s voice sounds so sincere, and George wonders if he will ever learn who that “GeorgeNotFound” is. Will Clay be mad for stalking his streams? Will he insist on giving that money back? 

George’s thoughts trail off once again and he just mindlessly watches Clay win the round of bedwars.

  
“He is good at minecraft, dude.” Nick finally speaks up, carefully picking words not to make his friend panic even more. George hums in response, watching Clay crit a guy with an iron sword so easily. He jumps to the other island, loots the chest and laughs loudly as Tommy falls to his death in the giant void beneath them. “Tommy is… loud.”   
“Yeah, he is. He is more chill when they are just chatting with Wilbur, Techno, Phil and Tubbo. I liked their chill talking streams.” George casually responds, not really thinking about the fact that Nick, probably, doesn’t even know half of those people. He laughs as Tommy curses Dream after falling again, and cheers, watching the older break the last bed. Tommy respawns with no stuff on him and dies to Clay’s crits in the next second. “Tommy is actually very good at minecraft too, but he sometimes throws for content.”

“Throws for content?” George can imagine Sapnap raising his eyebrow in a questioning way, and enthusiastically nods.   
“Yeah. That’s what they call when you purposefully lose to get chat’s reaction or to make a funny moment for a compilation video.” George moves closer to the screen, watching the stream with genuine interest.

He tries to remember every single trick that Clay uses to win, tries to remember the way he blocks his bed and promises himself to win Sapnap the next time they play against each other. George frowns, hearing someone joining the discord call, but then, after Tubbo’s cheerful “hello”, he relaxes. 

“Who is that?” George isn’t really sure whether Nick is actually interested, but he doesn’t really care, just feeling happy that his friend tries to give George a chance to talk about his new interest.  
“That’s Tubbo. He is Tommy’s close friend and, I am not really sure if they are actually related, but they call each other brothers from time to time.” 

* * *

  
  


They end up watching the whole stream, sometimes taking breaks for George to explain something to Nick. The latter ends up very interested in the plot of the SMP that Dream has, asking so many questions about characters and the storyline in general. He points out Tommy’s acting skills, when the stream suddenly turns into a lore one, and actually seems impressed by how serious those streamers take this role-play. George sends Nick a timeline of the events and walks him through the major events that he managed to remember over the night

Sapnap doesn’t ask any intrusive questions, just quietly taking in the information, sometimes pointing out interesting parts of the plot, and George is actually thankful for that. They say their goodbyes when it hits eight pm, both suddenly feeling tired. Sapnap makes sure to text George afterwards, making him go eat, shower and only then go to bed, knowing fully well that his friend forgets those little things almost every day. George falls asleep about an hour later, for some reason feeling exhaustion roll over him. 

**Sapnap** : you do have a crush on Clay, don’t you?

listen man, i don’t shame you or anything. i’m actually pretty happy that you finally, like… found someone that rings your bell. it’s more of a “hey dude i’m worried cause i keep seeing you upset and hugging Luca at work, which you only do when you are overwhelmed.”  
i know you like keeping stuff as professional as you can, which is very valid, but that drains you, imho. you should ask Clay out, probably. he seems like a nice guy and i would love to play minecraft with him. 

Karl agrees with me, by the way. He said he can ask Jimmy to help you set up a cool date or something. he has that mad cash money.

okay, i hope you are asleep. sleep well, dumbass. hope to see you tomorrow

Alex asked me to say hi to you. hi from Alex lol


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> metanoia (n.) the journey of changing one's mind, heart, self.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i want to make a chapter that is only dedicated to Dream and that stuff, so we'll see how it goes.  
> this one is a bit messy again, sorry. it's five am and i'm very fucking tired

**GeorgeNotFound:** _thank you, Nick._

The Next morning George wakes up actually rested for the first time in a while. He yawns, stretching his arms in the air, the clock beeps a few times before finally shutting up. The LED monitor glows, showing seven am on it, and George smiles. He has an hour before he has to go to work.

The Brit stands up, stretching, and grabs the first jumper he sees in his wardrobe, trying to pull it over his head as he drags his legs to the bathroom. In the reflection of the mirror he doesn’t see the dark circles that were there yesterday, instead, he sees himself. Brushing his teeth, George thinks that he really should do something nice for Nick today, as a sign of thankfulness. Expressing his thoughts through words wasn’t a thing that George was used to. He would rather help with something at home or bring a cup of warm coffee, but saying that he actually loves or cares about someone wasn’t his cup of tea. He spits the toothpaste into the sink and washes his face in a rush, hoping that he has enough time to cook a decent breakfast. 

He ends up having some cereal and apple juice, eating it in such a rush, that at the end he exits the house with hiccups. The whole road to the café he spends trying to hold his breath for a long enough period of time to get rid of this annoying feeling. 

When he opens the door, Nick was already behind the counter, placing muffins and little cheesecakes behind the glass display. He looks up, hearing the bell ring, and smiles at George, waving as a greeting. George waves back and walks in the staff room, throwing his backpack on the couch. 

  
“Hey Bad! I hope you didn’t overwork yourself yesterday.” George looks at his friend, who was sitting beside a phone charger in the corner of the room, and grabs his apron. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t feeling well yesterday.”

“Oh, It’s okay! It was hard to make Zak to actually work, but i managed.” Bad giggles, placing his phone down. George laughs, tying the apron behind his back in a small knot. “Do you feel better today?” 

“Yeah, definitely. I talked to Nick about stuff and now i feel way better.” The Brit grabs his name tag, pining it on his chest, and walks to the door. “I’ll see you later. Gonna go help Sap with stuff.”

Sapnap was nearly done with getting the display cases ready when George walks up to him. The Texan shoves the tray towards his friend as a silent way to ask for help, and George hums, carefully placing cupcakes on their places. 

“Did you sleep well?” Nick huffs as he crouches to place the pumpkin pie on the bottom of the display case. “Karl won’t stop bugging me about you yesterday. He accidentally read my messages and went full-on mom friend mode.” 

“I did. Woke up actually not tired today for the first time in like… months.” George smiles, moving the price tags to the right places. “Tell Karl that he doesn’t have to be worried. Everything is okay, I guess.” 

When they finish placing desserts, George stands up and shuffles towards the door, turning the “open” sign on. It lights up with a soft pink glow, catching the attention of Tiger, who was sitting near the door. The cat jumps on the windowsill and carefully pats the glass with his paw. George laughs, watching Tiger play with the glow of the sign. When he looks up, his eyes meet with the eyes of the man on the opposite side of the road.   
Clay was standing on the edge of the road, looking at George with a curious look in his eyes. The Brit frowns, watching as Dream takes his hands out of the pocket to wave, and sighs. He waves back and turns around before Clay even starts to cross the road. He knows that he will come in soon, so why should he stand there as an idiot? 

He gets behind the counter, takes the notebook and looks at Nick.

“Do you want me to take his order?” Nick starts to stand up from his chair, but stops when George carefully places a hand on his shoulder.

“No, I can do my job myself.” George wants to say thank you or tell Nick that he appreciates the concern, but tries his best not to. It’ll just make everything awkward, he thinks, as he walks to the table.

Patches was already there, walking around Clay’s chair and purring louder than she ever had. George still gets surprised, seeing this stubborn cat show this much affection towards someone. 

“Good morning, George! I like the colour of your jumper, it’s green.” Dream looks up at George, his eyes shining with some weird expression that George struggles to understand. “Uh, can I get a cup of hibiscus tea, a c-”

“A cheesecake and cat treats?” Clay hums in response and laughs. After a few weeks of this blonde man showing up to the café, both George and Sapnap managed to memories his order perfectly, just making small adjustments in the sizes of the drink and different kinds of treats. Before leaving to the counter, George looks down, watching Clay’s hands fiddle with a piece of a napkin. Is he nervous? Why is he nervous? 

The Brit hands the notepad to Bad and turns around to Nick, who was cheerfully chatting with Karl on his phone. During the first few hours that was literally the only thing that Sap was doing. There weren’t that many customers for them to actually be very productive, so he just spent the time cracking jokes or talking to his fiancés over the phone or in discord.

George once again thinks about how happy he is for his childhood friend. Ever since they met, Nick was the person who always was ready to help, yet George wasn’t that straightforward with showing affection. So now, when Sapnap has two people that he can fully rely on and give his loving energy to, he is literally glowing with happiness. 

He smiles when Nick finally acknowledges his friend standing beside them, and nods, letting him know that he doesn’t mind. Whatever Sapnap shouldn’t always listen to George ramble about Clay.

Dream was sitting with Patches on his lap, quietly talking to her with a very loving look on his face. Something about him feels very different ever since George found his twitch. Just the fact that no one except for the sleepy boys and DreamSMP members saw his face was mind-boggling. It was surreal to know how that faceless streamer looks, while everyone else was completely oblivious. 

George picks up the tray with food from Bad, smiles at him, and rushes to serve Clay’s meal. When he walks up to him, he notices a little diamond pickaxe keychain hanging out of his pocket. Of course, he has minecraft merch, how else would it be.

“Is that a minecraft pickaxe?” George says as he put the cup and the plate down at the table. Clay immediately reaches towards the cat treats, taking one out and offering it to Patches. She perks up her ears and grabs a little fish-shaped thing, munching on it with a blissful face.  
“Oh, the keychain? Yeah, I really like playing mc in my spare time.” Dream fishes the keys out of his pocket and looks at the little keychain, showing it to George a bit closely. On the handle, right near the end of it, there is a little Dream blob drawn with a black sharpie. George has to hold himself from pointing it out. “Do you play it?”   
“Yeah, sometimes. Nick and I used to spend hours on hypixel and we were very good at it. We still are, honestly.” George watches as Clay’s eyes light up with genuine excitement and smiles at that, noting that this grown-up man looks like a happy child. Dream stands up and moves the chair next to him a bit to the side, inviting George to sit with him. 

The Brit looks at Nick, looking for reassurance, and gets a quick thumbs up in response. He rolls his eyes at that, sitting down timidly. For the first time, he wishes that there were more people right now, just to make an excuse and run away. 

“So, what game do you play on hypixel?” Clay takes a fork, pointing it at George before getting to his food. “I really like playing bedwars with some of my friends. Tommy specifically, 'cause it’s funny to see him rage.”

“We play bedwars too. It’s a bit hard since I’m not very good with colours.” Dream looks up from his plate with one brow raised a bit. “I’m colour-blind. Nick has to think of special call-outs for me to understand which base to go for. It’s annoying, but we learnt how to deal with that.”   
“I have ADHD, so it’s not easy for me too, I guess. It’s hard to focus on some stuff.” Clay pokes his cheesecake, leaving four little holes in it with his fork. Patches curiously lifts her head, looking at the dessert patiently. “I take meds, but sometimes I forget to. And on those days it’s just… very hard to play.”   
“You play every day?” George tries his best not to give out the fact, that he knows fully well that he knows that about Dream, remembering his Q&A stream in detail. He watches as Clay’s face suddenly turns into embarrassment and slight panic, and looks away in order not to make him even more flustered.   
The bell above the door rings and George exhales heavily. Nick looks up and waves his hand above his hand, signalling to his friend that he has to get back to work. George hesitantly gets up and smiles shyly. Dream looks up at him with that same weird expression on his face, making the Brit’s stomach cold.   


“Yeah, I do.” Clay says calmly, and gets back to his food, slightly patting Patches head. “Tommy makes me, usually. He is annoying.” 

“Oh yeah, I could tell.” George laughs and relaxes when Dream’s face lights up with a smile. “I’m gonna go get back to work. Maybe we can chat about Minecraft later.” 

He rushes to the new customers, feeling Clay’s eyes on him this whole time. George tries to do his work without getting distracted, explaining everything about their cats to the new customers. 

George gets back behind the counter only after fifteen minutes, exhausted from the customer’s kid spending so long choosing a cat he wants to play with. Tiger wasn’t very happy with someone being so touchy with him, but George exhales in relief when he sees the cat pretend to love it. At least he learnt that he shouldn’t be aggressive towards kids, which can not be bad.

Nick gets back to work after two more families come in. He runs around the place, helping them with cats and guiding them with the rules of interacting with fluffy friends. Before George can even sit down to relax, Clay stands up from his table, getting ready to leave. 

The Brit walks to the cashier machine, leaning on the counter, and smiles at Dream as he comes closer. The blonde man already has a hundred dollar bill in his hands, and George can’t help but roll his eyes at that.   
“What? I just want to support my favourite café!” Dream laughs, placing the bill on the counter, and turns around. “I have to run, Tommy needs me for something. I’ll see you tomorrow, George!”

When George reaches for the payment, he finds a little napkin underneath it, with a little Dream blob drawn on it with a black marker and a phone number. “We can talk about Minecraft if you want” is scribbled on it, barely readable. George looks around, feeling his cheeks burn for some reason, and hides the note in his apron’s pocket. 

  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


“Wait, is he live right now?” 

They are sitting in George’s bedroom, Nick and Karl cuddling on one side of the bed and George sitting with a bowl of pop-corn on the other. The latter nods, clicking his mouse on the little icon on the screen, and Clay’s voice fills the room, loudly playing through the speakers. Karl’s face lights up with curiosity as soon as he sees minecraft on the screen, and Nick gently presses him closer to himself.   
“Didn’t you say that you got his number?” Nick turns his head towards George, and the Brit feels his face burn with embarrassment again. He slowly nods, taking the note out of his jeans. The napkin is a bit rumpled after the workday, but the words and the numbers are still fairly readable, which, for some reason, makes George happy. “What if you call him right now?”

“Oh my god, yes, do it!” Karl perks up a bit, hitting Nick with his head accidentally. Sapnap grunts, rubbing his chin. “Crap, sorry Sap, I didn’t mean to”   
“It’s okay, honey.” George rolls his eyes at that dumb pet name and takes his phone out of the pocket, staring at the screen debating whether he should do that or not. “Come on, it’ll be funny.”

The Brit sighs, typing in the number and pushes the speakers button. Clay on the stream swears quietly and excuses himself, muting his mic. As soon as he picks up, Nick mutes the stream with a click of a mouse and puts his thumbs up in an encouraging manner.

“Hello?” Clay’s voice sounds way more different when he is talking on his phone, rather than when he is talking to his audience. He sounds a bit calmer and more chill, and George suddenly gets a weird thought of how amazing it is to be talking to Dream, while millions of people wish they could do that.   
“Hey, it’s George from the café. Wanted to check if you gave me your number, and not Tommy’s or something.” On the other line Clay wheezes at that and George sees Karl cover his mouth with his hand, trying to hold the laugh in.   
“Yeah, that’s Clay from the café. I’m so glad that you actually called and didn’t like… Throw away the napkin or something.” George hears the clicks of the keyboard and moves his head towards the screen, watching Dream’s character run around the Dream SMP mindlessly. “I’m sorry for sounding like a dick, but I’m a bit busy right now. Work, you know? Can I call you in an hour or so?” 

“Oh, yeah, sure! Good luck, I guess?” in response he hears a faint hum and a quick goodbye before Clay hangs up. The on-stream Clay unmutes himself and says a quick sorry to the chat, that was moving even faster than ever. 

George laughs, seeing Tommy spam “did a wOMAN call you?” and points at those messages, making both Karl and Sapnap die from laughter.   
  
“No, it wasn’t a “woman”, Tomothy. Stop spamming, I didn’t give you mod privileges for that, child.” Dream laughs, and the chat blows up again, pointing out how much more happy and excited he sounds. Clay ignores those messages getting back to building the community house, but George suddenly feels the butterflies in his stomach.   
“Dude, he definitely likes you.” 


End file.
